by Paul Sating
Andrew shrugged, his double-fisted grip never left the steering wheel as they bounced over the uneven ground. "We do these periodic conservation inspections that take up a lot of time. I set one up for today so he's expecting me to be out. They take forever."
"Your boss, won't he know you didn't do it?"
"No, not as long as I don't miss anything egregious. Plus, I'm going back out after we're done."
So, the park ranger was making even bigger sacrifices? All in the name of making sure he involved an expert in whatever it was that happened to him. Non-believers didn't do that. "That's going to be a long day for you."
This time Andrew risked a glance across the small cab. "It's worth it."
The change was palpable. The park ranger he'd met a little over an hour ago was a different person now. Even without Jared connecting the dots, Andrew was screaming for an olive branch that would help him make sense of whatever it was he had gone through on this mountain. It was times like this when Jared considered himself lucky; he'd seen a Sasquatch when he was a young boy and that shaped his entire world. Most people didn't believe because they hadn't seen what he saw. What must that be like for them? To think they knew the world, to think they had a deeper understanding of it, only to discover there are creatures walking the planet, swimming in its oceans that have been undiscovered by humankind? The swirl of thoughts and questions must be swamping Andrew's mind. One thing was for sure, the invisible wall that stood between them back in Andrew's office was gone. Andrew felt less resistant, more approachable ... vulnerable.
They made their way up and up, taking winding roads, which looked more like wide trails than anything drivable, even in this utility truck. It was an uncomfortable ride for Jared, but it didn't seem to affect Andrew in the slightest. The park ranger rode the bumps and holes as if he were relaxing in a kayak on a lazy river while Jared locked his grip on the handhold above his head to stop from being jolted all over the small cab. The benefits of youth.
The ride up the mountain was a difficult climb for the small vehicle, taking far longer than it should. Part of Jared expected it. Mountain driving was like this, no matter where in the world you were; it was always slow-going, even in the best of circumstances. Most mountain areas humans explored were spider-webbed by trails and roads. None of them were ever pleasant to traverse. They were always slower and more painful than driving in city traffic. But that didn't take away from the beauty of the experience. Rainier dominated the landscape here. Rainier was the landscape. It was surreal; the immensity of it all. To have the entire sky filled with this volcanic monstrosity was a reminder of how small and insignificant human beings were. One only needed to visit nature to realize that. Maybe that was why more and more people were moving back into cities, where they could feel important. Relevant. Who knew? Who cared? This was the world he felt comfortable in. Here, everything made sense.
After thirty more minutes, Andrew pulled the pickup off to the side of the trail road and shut it off. He turned to Jared as he opened his door, "This is where we hike."
"Excellent," Jared smiled, enthusiastic, "I've always loved being on this mountain. Where are we headed?"
"Up to Anvil Rock."
Jared left the vehicle and retrieved his backpack from the bed, "Isn't that quite the hike from here? I don't have my bearings."
Andrew smiled, slinging his own pack across his back. "It's nowhere near the summit if that's what you're asking. We're not prepared for that long of a hike. And we're not going to Anvil Rock, just near it."
The pair finished gearing up and started out on their journey up the mountain via a trail that was partially obscured by overgrowth. Like all mountains this size, the higher up you went the less vegetation you had to fight through. Up near Anvil Rock, there was going to be even less of it, probably nothing more than grass and rock. Down here though, the vegetation was robust enough that Jared would have overlooked this trail had Andrew not pulled up to the foot of it.
The ascent was immediate, Jared's thighs burned within the first hundred yards. One of the benefits of investigating Sasquatch was staying in decent shape. Good shape when compared to other people his age. Thousands of miles of hiking across the state would do that for anyone. But the drawback to all that hiking was the wear and tear on joints, especially his knees. Jared learned over the years that staying away from doctors’ knives meant changing how he approached hiking altogether, before and after the fact. It didn't eliminate knee and joint pain, but it sure went a long way toward making it all easier. He was going to pay for this.
It’s worth it.
They were on a tight schedule now, with a lot of hiking ahead of them, and apparently, Andrew didn't even stop to consider that Jared couldn't go into an all-out sprint up the mountainside. Just when I thought I was doing pretty good for myself this young buck reminds me I'm on the wrong side of life, Jared thought while he still had oxygen. But he pressed on, keeping up with Andrew the entire way.
"So, want to tell me about it while we have the time?" Jared said between panting breaths.
For the briefest of seconds, Andrew's shoulders slumped. "I was off-duty at the time I saw the ... the creature," he replied. Jared hid his smirk at Andrew's inability or unwillingness to call what he saw by its name. Sometimes this stuff was so predictable.
He figured it wasn't worth pushing the issue; converts usually did much better when given the time and space to figure it out for themselves. "You usually come up on the mountain even on your days off?"
"When I'm around, yeah," Andrew replied. "In case you missed it on your drive, there isn't a whole lot around Mount Rainier besides Mount Rainier. Plus, I like it out here. Gives me a lot of thinking time."
It was easy to see why as they crept closer to the edge of the tree line. Gaps appeared with more regularity, widening as they retreated. Even the pine needle floor incrementally cleared of nature's litter. Mount Rainier could be considered pretty barren when you got to this elevation, in fairness, providing a lack of obstacles that allowed them to hike more quickly. After an hour that felt more like three, they cleared the tree line, leaving Jared to take in the chaotic beauty of volcanic rock covering the rugged landscape. It didn't make sense, though, not in a Bigfoot sense anyways. This part of Rainier, and up, was too barren, too exposed. It was anything but the natural habitat for Sasquatch. The lack of natural tree cover should have been a huge red flag, warning him away from this ruse, but Andrew didn't come across as that type of witness. Not even remotely. Jared kept quiet; expressing doubt wasn't something he was in the business of doing with any believers, never mind new converts. Balanced skepticism won the day. Plus, any doubt he expressed might discourage Andrew. The lack of natural cover didn't invalidate the ranger's experience.
"There's nothing up here," Jared said between deep breaths. They were still a good distance from Anvil Rock, but its prominence couldn't be argued. A wall of jagged peaks shot up from the mountainside, as if Anvil Rock refused to be part of something bigger, asserting its independence from Mother Rainier.
Andrew smiled, giving no signs he was wearing down from the demands of the hike.
God, how I miss those days.
"Don't worry," Andrew laughed, "we're stopping here."
"Good."
"Man, getting old must suck." It was the first quip Jared had heard from the park ranger since they left his office.
"Oh, you'll see," Jared smiled, emptying what felt like half the water in his water pack into his gut. "It happens to all of us. What are you? 25?"
“Missed it by two years,” Andrew smirked. “27.”
“I’ve got a good decade on you,” Jared said. “It happens fast, especially in your knees. Enjoy pain-free hikes while you can.”
Andrew nodded with a tight smile and then pointed up the hillside. "So, I was about here, taking pictures of the summit," he said, putting an end to their quick bonding session. "It was a beautiful day. There'd been a few days of new snowfall and I wanted to captu
re it. It was pristine but still traversable, so I covered a little more area than I'd planned. I was all over this face of the mountain. That's when I noticed the footprints. They came from left to right from beyond that rock outcropping over there. I couldn't identify what species left the prints, so I started tracking them. I was curious. Really curious. The size and depth of the prints were impressive. Deep enough to be a bear, so I knew it was a heavy animal, but not even close to the correct shape."
"How so?"
In an instant, Andrew looked like he was going to change his mind on this entire escapade. Jared would tackle him before that happened, if he needed to. "It had toes."
"Toes?"
"Big, fat, round-tipped toes," Andrew nodded. "I was fascinated so I followed them. All the way around that outcropping over there. My curiosity got the better of me and, even though I was feeling uneasy, I was probably fifty yards away from the outcropping when I saw it. Man, it's crazy."
Jared gave him a moment to collect his thoughts. When it was obvious Andrew wasn't going to say anything, Jared did, "I get that. A lot of people still don't understand what they see, even years after an encounter. It was a Sasquatch?"
"I'm not saying that," Andrew replied. "I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a bear or gorilla or something. It was very ... human-like. I don’t know how else to describe it. Covered in hair. Had to be seven feet tall. At least. Come on. Let me show you the tracks."
They walked toward the outcropping Andrew set as their target. Today’s sunshine gave them the advantage of seeing the tracks. Even from this distance, they were easy to distinguish from Andrew's own earlier tracks. The closer they drew to the site the faster Jared's heart raced. These looked legitimate, but it was difficult to be sure. Time is the enemy of anyone studying Sasquatch; long periods between sightings and evidence collection do not serve anyone and the warm conditions had taken a toll. Tracks always suffered in sunny, warmer conditions and at this elevation, without the protection of trees, they were severely degraded by two days of sun exposure.
Ridgelines in tracks don't survive sun exposure unless they’re documented soon after a sighting. Jared was too late for these tracks, which had already begun melting into themselves, distorting size and shape. That didn't make for good science and would only feed the trolls who seemed to live to debunk Sasquatch claims. Jared knew that but didn't want to tell Andrew. The man had taken a huge risk in opening up. The last thing Jared wanted to do was make the park ranger feel foolish. For all he knew Andrew might be calling him again in a month, a week, or even tomorrow, with a new sighting. No, it was best to not say anything about the natural damage that ruined what could have been incredible evidence at this new site.
Jared kneeled next to one of the better prints. Whatever left these tracks was bipedal and large. His own tracks went no deeper than two inches, but of course, the snowpack was harder now than it would have been two days ago. These tracks? The depth was six-to-eight inches.
Whatever left these prints was big.
Jared grabbed his camera and took a few pictures of the prints as well as the site itself before plotting the location on his GPS Tracker. None of his peers had reports of sightings out here so there weren't records anyone could share, even if they were willing. For all he knew this was the start of documented sightings on Mount Rainier. If Andrew ever called again with another sighting Jared would need to have something to start with when that time came; comparative data was essential to a progressive investigation.
Seeing this evidence made the trip worth his time. Plus, if he wrapped this up with grace, he might earn himself another ally. Someone on the inside.
The walk back to the truck didn't take half the time the trek up did. "Thanks a lot for this," Jared said as they loaded their gear into the bed.
"Do you think it'll help?"
Jared noted a hint of desperation in Andrew's voice, like he worried his fears of looking like a fool would be confirmed. "Everything helps," Jared was as diplomatic as possible, disguising his own disappointment. "There's a ton of tracks up there. Something crossed that mountain and if you say you saw something you couldn't identify, I believe you. I'd like you to contact me immediately if something else happens. A park guest, one of your peers, you. If someone sees something, please let me know. I'll drop everything and get back out here as quickly as I can."
When Andrew smiled a tight smile, Jared felt a little less guilty. "I will. Uh," Andrew looked around. "You don't mind not putting my name in any of your reports or anything, right?"
Jared spent the next few minutes calming Andrew's regret, the emotion that springs up right after it's dawned on them that they talked about something that their former selves would laugh at.
If he had a penny for every time he saw what he called ‘witness regret’.
*****
The ride back was uncomfortable, and not because of the road conditions. Andrew seemed to be struggling with making his admission. He’d become even tenser, his answers even more abrupt. It hung in the air between them all the way back to the visitor center parking lot. Jared tried to be as friendly as possible as they parted ways, thanking Andrew for his time and his help. He didn't want the park ranger regretting this because there were never enough allies and if Mount Rainier had even a trickle of legitimate sightings it meant things had changed. Jared wanted to be at the front of that new situation.
As he began the long trek back down the mountain road, Jared took one last look in the rearview mirror and saw Andrew, still standing at the now-vacated parking spot, watching him. Was he wishing he could take it all back and pretend the entire experience was a dream? Jared learned a long time ago that you couldn't be too careful or too considerate with new converts. Seeing your first Sasquatch, especially in the career field Andrew worked in, could be traumatic and having to rush off like he did wasn't doing anything for the tinge of guilt that pricked at him.
But it was getting late and he had a long drive to Forks ahead of him.
Another town.
Another sighting.
Another shaken witness.
Did this ever end?
6
The drive to Forks was long. It took two hours to get back to Olympia, forty minutes of which was spent struggling to get cell phone reception. The nice thing about that was it provided Jared with plenty of time to record his track for the podcast and to think. The Tascam had plenty of space, even for his ramblings. In fact, he could talk the entire way out to Forks and not fill a tenth of its storage. There was so much to say. Most of it would never make the show, he knew that, but speaking thoughts out loud was an excellent way for him to process what sightings this far east meant to everything he thought he knew about Bigfoot population centers. Especially the troubled ones.
He never expected to see possible evidence at Mount Rainier.
He appreciated having time to think after meeting a witness. That was even truer when he was on his way to meet another one. Back-to-back interviews were becoming the norm, it seemed.
It hadn't always been like that. At the beginning of his career, he would have considered himself lucky to find two people over the course of an entire month who wanted to share their Sasquatch experience. No one shared evidence back then. Over the years, he built trust and a reputation, or maybe it was the other way around, and witnesses began coming forward. With each passing year more and more of them wanted some of his time. There were frauds and scammers too, but Jared learned to deal with them; it only took a few wasted weekends for him to learn to be a little more skeptical about people and their motivations. Now, rarely a week passed where he didn't have at least one interview with a witness lined up. And, lately, it was almost a daily occurrence.
So he valued his thinking time. A lot.
The quiet gave him time to think about Maria ... and how much he missed her. Her voice. Her smell. Her touch. Her patience.
And a long drive after an exhausting day was the perfect excuse to give her a call.
His heart thudded in his chest as the phone rang. Her flat tone smothered his excitement. "Is everything okay, Jared?"
"Hi to you too."
She sighed through the phone. "Sorry. I'm just ... sort of in the middle of something."
"Oh, what are you doing?"
"Jared, you don't get to ask me that kind of stuff anymore. Remember?"
He was tired from the long day and all the wrong turns he'd taken. He snapped back, "I hadn't realized that a separation entitled us to completely distinct lives."
"Don't be like that." There was hurt in her voice.
"Sorry, I didn't realize how far we'd fallen."
"Why are you calling?" Maria redirected.
Way to go, idiot. The opportunity for a healthy conversation was gone. He'd blown it ... again. The only thing left to do now was to rescue what he could. "Never mind. It's ... I need you to check in on Molly if you could."
"You're going to be out of town again?"
"I left Rainier a while ago, but I need to run out to Forks," he grimaced, knowing what she was already thinking. "Something happened out there."
"I have plans tonight, Jared. You can't drop things on me like this."
Fair enough. "Okay. Could you at least swing by and ask Mike if he could?"
"No, I'll do it," Maria replied. "Just plan better next time."
The retort was on his lips immediately. "Thanks for doing me the favor of taking care of the dog you own too. I'll figure something out for the future so I stop bothering you."
"Okay," her monotone voice told him that he’d crossed the line ... again, "listen, I didn't mean to come off as harsh. I thought I was pretty clear about what I needed."
"It's crystal clear, Maria," Jared whined. "Have a good day."
Ending the phone call still hurt.
Why did he do this to himself? Yes, the void was dark and deep and scary, but life went on, with or without Maria. He couldn't grab for her every time he felt himself slipping. Was it old habits? That or his complete failure to realize she may have shared his excitement in the past without recognizing that the unfortunate thing about the past was that it isn't the present? Maria was supportive of his passion for years. Married for more than ten years, though the last few couldn't be considered much of a marriage, she'd not only tolerated what he did but encouraged him to do it. Early on she even went on expeditions with him, but that changed in the last few years after she completely lost interest. Even now, Jared was unsure where it started going wrong, but once it made that turn from good to bad, it got bad pretty quickly.